Pablo Milanes: Pablo Querido - Universal - Reseña

Latin Beat Magazine, June-July, 2002 by Jesse Varela

The songs of Pablo Milanés have served to inspire generations with metaphorically rich Spanish-language prose put to simple hum-and-strum guitar chords that speak about hope, love and a better day. A pioneer of the Cuban new song movement along with Silvio Rodríguez, his legacy is double-edged, as a troubadour of the Cuban Revolution and as a pop singer/songwriter in the same league as composers such as Armando Manzanero.

Now with a little help from his friends, the iconoclastic 59-year old from Bayamo has come up with a 2-CD tribute album entitled Pablo Querido. Comprised of Milanés in duet with Juan Formell y Los Van Van, Gal Costa, Fito Paez, Soledad Bravo, Milton Nascimento, Tania Libertad, Armando Manzanero, Lucecita Benitez, Maná and many others, Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Márquez casts the spell with a spoken introduction that leads to the opening track, Proposiciones (with Los Van Van). Full of vibrant colors and moods, it's a compelling musical voyage that one minute immerses the listener in a lush valley of strings with La Novia Que Nunca Tuve, featuring Ricardo Arjona, and the next in the high planes of the Andes with the Chilean folk group Illapuas as pan pipes adorn Yolanda. Legends abound: El Amor de Mi Vida with Mexican singer Marco Antonio Muñiz; Los Años Mozo with Argentina's rockero suprema, Charley García, and Comienzo y Final de Una Verde Mañana with Brazil's Caetano Veloso. Though his voice is huskier and more brittle now, this collection serves to acknowledge the perception and imagination that has made Milanés a legend, with profound prose and songs that stick to the soul.